The present application pertains to aviation navigational and flight management systems and methods and, more particularly, to improved systems and methods for providing emergency landing guidance and utilizing radar vectors in conjunction with navigational guidance information. Such systems and methods can be used to guide a pilot to suitable airports or other landing sites in cases of forced and/or precautionary landings. They can also be used for real-time correction of navigational guidance based upon real-time off-course operations.
Aviation navigational systems allow a pilot to determine an aircraft's heading, altitude and position, e.g., vis-a-vis navigational beacons, the global positioning system or otherwise. Some such systems also display the host craft position relative to a pre-determined flight route and/or relative to the geography over which it is flying. These displays are typically two-dimensional (2D), though, increasingly the marketplace offers three-dimensional (3D) displays. One such system is the VistaNav™ flight navigation system, commercially available from the assignee hereof, that displays real-time, synthetic three-dimensional images of the airspace and terrain in the vicinity of an aircraft in-flight, as well as during take-off and landing.
Such aviation navigational systems allow an operator to prepare a desired flight plan between two locations. The flight plan data, which can be presented as a two-dimensional moving map or as three-dimensional views, can be visualized on an electronic display, with an associated computer providing the visualization data. As the aircraft travels along the desired flight plan path, its actual location can be indicated on the display relative to the desired flight plan. A course deviation indicator (“CDI”) can be used to indicate to an operator how far off course a vehicle is relative to a desired course, allowing the pilot to adjust the actual flight of the vehicle to attempt to match the desired flight plan. As such, current navigation systems can provide pilots with information to maintain a flight path consistent with a predetermined desired flight plan.
Off-course operations are often initiated by Air Traffic Control (“ATC”) or other sources to maintain safe air traffic operations due to heavy air traffic or poor weather conditions. Such operations are typically based on specified vectors indicating heading and altitude to be maintained by the aircraft. Such headings can be provided on an absolute, relative, or magnetic basis.
Off-course operations are not accommodated by existing aviation navigation systems. Upon deviating from a desired flight plan due to a directed off-course radar vectoring, the navigation system constantly indicates the “erroneous” flight path of the vehicle, though such deviation is an intended operation. As well, existing navigation systems cannot provide guidance for the actual off-course vectoring operations. Accordingly, off-course vectoring is often performed manually, with vectoring directions written down on paper by aircraft pilots who are busily performing other piloting functions. Furthermore, upon completing off-course vectoring operations, the originally plotted flight path may not provide an efficient flight plan to the intended destination because the aerial vehicle's location is far from the desired path. Though a new flight path to the final destination may be replotted relative to the vehicle's current location, such recalculation can be disruptive to aerial vehicle operators during flight operations. As well, recalculation necessarily results in the loss of all historical data for the current flight, which can result in the loss of valuable flight information. These problems can be further compounded if multiple off-course vectoring operations occur during a particular trip.
During actual flight operations, emergencies can occur. These may be a result of complete loss of power to the engines, e.g., due to mechanical failure, fuel loss, fire and so forth. These may also arise under conditions not amounting to complete loss of engine power, including lesser equipment failures, sick passengers, and so forth. The prescribed response to such emergencies is to land at the nearest possible airport, often by gliding the aircraft under little or no power.
However, the prior art offers little in the way of guidance to achieve this. Thus, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,804,585 discloses an aviation navigational system that complements a conventional moving map display with circular symbols that are centered on each airport and that are sized according to the glide performance of the aircraft. Though the patent suggests that the circular symbols can be modified to account for variations in the craft's glide range resulting from head- and tail-wind, the navigational system it proposes does little to aid a pilot in actually reaching any of the circled airports in the event of emergency.
An object of this invention is to provide improved methods and apparatus for aerial navigation.
A further object of the invention is to provide such methods and apparatus as offer emergency landing guidance.
A still further object of the invention is to provide such methods and apparatus as can be used in cases of forced and/or precautionary landings.
A further object is to provide such methods and apparatus as are adapted for accommodating off-course vectoring operations.
A still yet further object of the invention is to provide such methods and apparatus as can be adapted for use with visualization navigation aids.